Sunday, June 30, 2013

Would you drink poop? Moreover, would you let your children drink poop? I think it is fair to say that it may seem like an obvious answer of a resounding NO!

Let me tell you a story.... Our friends Jeff and Holly went to Ethiopia to put in a clean water system in the dump of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, called Korah. As they were installing the system, the local pastor insisted the water supply his community was one that was clean. He said that why would he ever give his daughter and wife unclean water. Our friends took a sample of the water, placed the testing chemicals in it....then they waited.

Usually it takes a number if hours for the water to reveal toxins, contaminants and the like. However, my friend said within two minutes flecks began appearing. Flecks are poop...feces...crap....stool....excrement.... The pastor sat there, weeping. My friends said he wept tears of anger...anger at himself for allowing his daughter and wife to drink this water.... tears of sadness that this was the water ONLY available to his family, his community and his church.

They installed the clean water system.... cold, fresh, clean water. It was so clean and tasted so different from what the church was used to....they feared the water initially. Then, in joy, they let the water run over their faces and hands in celebration.

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So what? Why do you care? Why do we care?

Well from July 31 through August 8, JT has the opportunity to install three water systems in Ethiopia for Eyes That See the organization that helped start Tedi's orphanage (check them out here). He and a few other guys will be giving an orphanage, a school and a community center CLEAN WATER. These children can have water to drink that is safe without risking parasites, fungal infections and basically protect them from drinking POO...

How can you help? In order to provide three systems to these centers, the cost is $6000. Several other families who have children from Ethiopia feel equally as vested as we do in this.... They are working to raise money to help provide the systems. Now, we want to do our part.

July 3, 2010 and July 22, 2012 are the dates our boys became our sons, our family. These are the days we gave them CLEAN WATER, something you and I often take for granted. It is also Chernet's birthday month.... In honor of our boys' family month and Chernet's birthday, we would like to get this money raised....

875 MILLION people worldwide live without clean water... I would argue there would be a lot less morbidity, mortality, orphans, death, illness if clean water were accessible. We, our family and yours, can not give clean water in every inch of the earth. However, we can do SOMETHING. Visit here to read about the amazing non-profit agency that designed the chlorination systems we will be installing.

We are asking anyone who wants to help....if we can get to $6000 by July 20, we will be pumped!
Go HERE to donate (there is a PayPal "donate" button at the bottom of the page or you can send in a check). Please note *Clean Water* in the comments/notes/memo in whatever manner you donate.

Every bit helps!

Thank you so much for all the support you have given our family in the past. We hope you choose to help our son's birth country, and its beautiful people, once more.

"I believe that this could very well be looked back on as the sin of our generation. I look at my parents and ask, where were they during the civil rights movement? I look at my grandparents and ask, what were they doing when the holocaust in Europe was occurring with regard to the Jews, and why didn't they speak up? And when we think of our great, great, great-grandparents, we think how could they have sat by and allowed slavery to exist? And I believe that our children and their children, 40 or 50 yearsfrom now, are going to ask me, what did you do while 40 million children became orphans in Africa?"